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Distances and ages of globular clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

B. Chaboyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA email: Brian.Chaboyer@Dartmouth.edu
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Abstract

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As the oldest objects whose ages can be accurately determined, Galactic globular clusters can be used to establish the minimum age of the universe (and hence, to constrain cosmological models) and to study the early formation history of the Milky Way. The largest uncertainty in the determination of globular cluster ages is the distance scale. The current uncertainty in the distances to globular clusters is ~ 6%, which leads to a 13% uncertainty in the absolute ages of globular clusters. I am the PI on a SIM-Planetquest key project to determine the distances of 21 globular clusters with an accuracy of ranging from 1 to 4%. This will lead to age determinations accurate to 5 − 9%. The mean age of the oldest, most metal-poor globular clusters will be determined with an accuracy of ±3%.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

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